Display cabinet



April 11, 1944. F. w. EDWARDS DISPLAY CABINET Filed June 26, .1941 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR. Faq/wc h/ E p14/Awans April 11, 1944. F .W EDWARDS 2,346,368

DISPLAY CABINET Filed June 26, 1941 2 ShetS-Sheet 2 'Patented Apr. ll, 1944 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DISPLAY CABINET Frank W. Edwards, Cleveland, Ohio. signor to The Telling Belle Vernon Company,

a corporation of Ohio Cleveland.

appunti@ :une ze. m1, serai No. saam (ci. as w This invention relates to a combined storage and display cabinet and more particularly to the refrigerator type of cabinet especially adapted for the storage of ice cream and other dairy products, which are dispensed therefrom from time to time according to customer demands.

Such storage cabinets for dairy products and particularly ice cream are usually provldedwith deep recesses or wells, to receive one or more cans of bulk ice cream. Interposed between the external walls of the cabinet and the walls of the recesses is a set of cooling coils of a refrigerator unit. A closure is necessary, oi' course, to protect the products from the air at room temperature and heretofore such closures have been a source of great inconvenience and annoyance. In the past these closures comprised individually hinged or removable lids, one above each recess or container. The cabinets used in the past, therefore,

generally were provided with a half dozen or more lids, below any one of which might lie ,the particular ilavor of ice cream desired, and it is a usual sight to see clerks make three or four wrong guesses before iindlng the desired iiavor.

Another, and perhaps more serious disadvantageoi closures of vthis sort is the concealment of the product from the view of the prospective customer. He must be beguiled into purchasing by the display of mere advertising matter and must form his decision of choice from printed lists of flavors. In other words. the element of eyeappeal of the deliciously tempting product itself is lacking.

.The present invention has for its general object, therefore, the provision of a closure for a refrigerator cabinet which will be convenient in use and lacking in the sources of annoyance of the types used in the past, and which will allow the product itself to be seen with ease, not only by the clerk, but by the customer also, and will call the attention of the customer to itself in a most satisfactory manner.

A further object is the provision of such a closure in a form of simple design and adapted to be constructed of simple materials and, hence, to be economical in manufacture.

Other objects and advantages of this invention will become more apparent from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings in which there is illustrated a preferred embodiment of the invention. The novel and essential characteristics of the invention will be summarized in the claim.

' structed in accord with the 'A plurality of recesses or wells Il.

of a combined storage and display cabinet conpresent invention. the plane of the section being represented by the lines l-l on Fig. 2: Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the cabinet and closure of Fig. l: Fig. 3 is an end elevation of the cabinet: and Fig. 4 is a rear elevation of the cabinet. t

Referring now to the drawings. the cabinet of the present invention comprises a base In which is surmounted by a removable closure member 20. each of which may accommodate a plurality of containers or cans I2 oi' ice cream, are arranged side by side in the cabinet. 'I'he cabinet may also be provided with an additional well i3 for the storage of packaged ice cream, ice creamcakes, and other dairy products il.

The wells II and i3 may be cooled by any suitable refrigeration system. As illustrated in the drawings, the wells are surrounded by cooling coils i5 leading from a refrigerating unit I6. which may be of the usual type and conveniently housed within the cabinet base l0. A heat insulating material Illa is interposed between the cooling coils and the external walls of the base. As will be seen in Fig. 1, the depth of the wells is greater than that of the cans, thereby providing air spaces i1 within the wells above the upper level of the cans. The well walls in the regions above the cans may conveniently flare outwardly, as

shown atA Ila, to facilitate access to the contents of the cans. 'I'he top of the cabinet comprises a plane surface I8, broken only by the well openings and meets the end and side walls of the cabinet at substantially right angles, thus pro- In the drawings. Fig. 1 is a transverse section 55 quiescent layer of air viding a fiat, horizontal rim I9 completely about the periphery of the base. Upon this rim is seated the closure member 20 which will now be described.

The object of a storage cabinet of thisxind is. of course, to keep the contents cooled to the desired temperature and, therefore, some sort of insulation from the heat of the surrounding air should be provided. I have discovered that a of moderate depth will provide suiilcient protection 'in a manner fully as efficient as that of a heavily insulated lid. In addition, the air possesses the highly advantageous quality of transparency.

The closure member, as best illustrated in Fig. 1, has been so arranged as to provide the insulating blanket of air, above mentioned, as well as to protect such blanket from air currents so as to maintain its quiescent condition and at the same time provide easy access for dispensing the the flange of the closure protected contents, and to enable the contents to be viewed from the exterior of the cabinet by the customer and clerk withoutnecessitating the removal of the cover. The closure member 20 is of inverted V shape in cross section, the slanting front and rear walls 2| and 22 respectively, and the end walls 23 being joined at the top by a narrow horizontal roof portion 24 and terminating at their lower edges in an uninterrupted, horizontal, peripheral flange portion 25. This flange portion rests upon the cabinet rim I9 -here- A sealing gasket 28 ofsoft rubber or the like is preferably interposed between 2U and the rim I9 of the base. A depending lip or skirt 21 may be provided at the outer edges of the flange 25, which lip may snugly embrace the upper region of the base and thus serve as a positioning means for the closure member 20, and at the same time provide a sanitary and easily cleaned structure. Such a construction permits the closure member 20 to be easily and conveniently removed and replaced when it becomes necessary to change bases should the cooling unit become defective and facilitate the use of the closure on existing bases.

Access to the interior of the closure 20, and, hence, to the contents of the cabinet is provided by a pair of sliding doors 30, Figs. 1 and 4, covering an opening in the rear wall 22 of the closure. These doors preferably comprise sheets of glass, the Iedges of which are covered by narrow metal frames 3l which slide in grooved guideways 32 carried by the rear wall. Two such guideways are provided whereby the doors may be teiescoped to one side or the other as desired. Inconvenience is eliminated as the inward slant of the rear walls of the closure 20 allows the clerk to project his arm into the cabinet in a normal manner to remove the contents thereof.

The insulating blanket of air heretofore referred to, is that layercf airwhich is disposed between a horizontal plane passing through the lower extremity of the door opening and the upper face of the cabinet base. This blanket of air is confined and retained in a quiescent state by reason of the fact that the walls of the closure are imperforate except for the door opening which is normally closed by doors 30 and 3|. Hence, the air lying below the level of the broken line 33 in Fig. 1 is normally in a quiescent condition, disturbed only by slight-drafts which might possibly rutile its upper boundary when the door is temporarily open and in penetrating it to reach the contents of the wells. Such disturbances are temporary and minor as the air comes again to rest practically immeidately upon their cessation. The use of sliding doors, as heretofore described, is an additional factor in the preservation of the quiescent stateof this blanket of air as no turbulence is caused by their manipulation.

Since the blanket of air is chilled to a much lower temperature than the surrounding atmosphere it lies heavily upon the cabinet surfaces and the contents and as air is a very efficient heat insulator, the contents are quite easily kept at the desired'temperature. In fact, it has been found in actual use that the refrigerator unit is by the hand of the clerk called into operation much less frequently than it is when old style closure arrangements are used.

The present invention also promotes increased sales of the stored product since the arrangement is such that the product is visable to the customer at all times. The inverted V-shape of the closure element 20 aids materially in accomplishing this result. As shown in the drawings, the slanting glass doors 30 are provided with a silvering coat so as to constitute inwardly facing mirrors and a glass window 40 is set into the slanting front wall 2l. Light rays 4| from the cabinet 'contents are thus reflected by the mirrored doors and directed forwardly, as at 42, through the window 40 to the eyes of a person who may be in any part of the store or restaurant, for example, which is forwardly of the cabinet. In effect, the containers are raised and tipped tothe'broken line position I2a in Fig. 1 so that the customer looks directly into the containers and can view their contents in a manner illustrated by Fig. 2. Upon closer approval, the customer may look down through the window 40 to see the contents directly, as indicated by the light rays 43 in Fig. 1. If desired, the closure member 20 may be provided with a source of illumination such as electric lamps elements generally indicated at in Fig. 1 as being positioned immediately below the narrow upper wall of the closure member, the V-shaped walls of which conveniently provide reflector surfaces.

It' will be seen that the device of this invention may be economically manufactured of light sheet metal with the simple glass window and doors mounted therein in a quite simple manner. While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated, I am aware that numerous variations and adaptations may be made within the spirit and scope of my invention.

I claim:

In a display cabinet, a substantially enclosed container having a horizontal top provided with article receiving recesses, a cover for said container and comprising a metal plate formation of an inverted V shaped cross section having, a

, horizontal outward extending flange extending around its bottom edge to rest on the top wall of said container, said flange being provided with a downward projecting lip to embrace the side walls of said container to thereby position said cover, each of the sloping sides being provided with enlarged openings spaced a substantial distance from the top and bottom of said cover to thereby maintain substantially quiescent blankets of air above and below said openings, internally mirrored doors slidably mounted on said cover and within the confines thereof and arranged and adapted to close one of the openings, and a transparent member permanently closing the other opening, `means in said cover adjacent thel vertex of said V and within the upper quiescent blanket of air to directly illuminate the co tents of the container, said means being positio ed to avoid direct illumination of said mirrored walls, whereby the -illuminated contents of said container are visible from the exterior of said cover either directly through said transparent closure or by reflection of said mirrored doors.

FRANK W. EDWARDS. 

